Tales of Earthsea is right up there and of the usual high standard that you
can expect of Goro Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

"Good Movie"

Review by Jordyn
on 29th July, 2011

Purchased on Mighty Ape

It is a good movie, I found it at Video Easy one time and wanted to buy
it since.

Description

Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki) is a 2006 Japanese animated fantasy film
directed by Gorō Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli.

Something bizarre has come over the land. The kingdom is deteriorating.
People are beginning to act strange… What's even more strange is that people
are beginning to see dragons, which shouldn't enter the world of humans. Due to
all these bizarre events, Ged, a wandering wizard, is investigating
the cause.

During his journey, he meets Prince Arren, a young distraught teenage boy.
While Arren may look like a shy young teen, he has a severe dark side, which
grants him strength, hatred, ruthlessness and has no mercy, especially when it
comes to protecting Teru. For the witch Kumo this is a perfect opportunity. She
can use the boy's “fears” against the very one who would help him, Ged.

From the Studio Ghibli Collection.

Special Features

NTV Earthsea Special

Behind the Microphone featurette

Alternate Angle storyboards

Tales From Earthsea Movie Review
By EyeforFilm.co.uk

"Like the storm-tossed ship with which it opens, Tales From Earthsea has
had to face some rather rough waters since its launch. Critics the world over
have allowed it to be overwhelmed by comparisons both to the novels that
inspired it, and to the works of its director's ce­lebrated father, Hayao
Miyazaki. Taken on its own terms, however, Tales From Earthsea is a seaworthy
effort, both as an impressive debut from someone who has never previously worked
in animation, and as a fine (if somewhat bewildering) piece of synoptic
adaptation.

Comprising a trilogy of novels (The Wizard Of Earthsea, The Tombs Of
Atuan, The Farthest Shore) and numerous related short stories, Ursula K Le
Guin's Earthsea series takes its place alongside JRR Tolkien's stories of
Middle Earth and CS Lewis' Narnia chronicles as one of the most cherished
fantasy myths of the 20th century. Miyazaki Senior has long been a devotee of Le
Guin, and claims to have copies of her books permanently at his bedside. His
Nausicaa: Valley Of The Winds (1984) was made as a result of his failure to
secure the rights to adapt her works, and he is on record as stating that all
his subsequent films are thoroughly imbued with the ideology found in her
writings. The worlds of Le Guin and Ghibli, it seems, have long been intimately
connected.

After viewing Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Le Guin came to the
conclusion that Hayao Miyazaki was the right man after all to direct an animated
version of her fantasy. Hayao, however, felt that he was now too old to take on
such a task, and sought her permission for someone younger from his studio to
helm the feature. It was only when Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki settled on
Hayao's untested son Goro for the job that Hayao's enthusiasm waned, and he
withdrew from the project entirely (even breaking off communications with Goro).
Invidious comparisons between the work of father and son had now become
inevitable – so much so that Goro chose bravely to encode such Oedipal
conflict in the very fabric of the film, introducing his hero Arren as an
inexperienced young prince compelled by forces he does not himself comprehend to
murder his own father.

Thereafter, Arren flees the kingdom of Enlad and his own dark self, only
to find himself torn by two very different substitute fathers, the modest
Archmage Sparrowhawk and the immortality-seeking Lord Cob. The struggle between
these two men, and Arren's own inner conflict, are both symptom and cure for a
world plagued by ills – a world whose balance will eventually be restored as
surely as long, dark night is followed by sunrise.

Le Guin fanatics have lined up to deride Goro and his co-writer Keiko
Niwa for the liberties taken with their beloved texts – but, in truth, both
the film's generalising title, and its claim in the closing credits to have
been inspired by ‘the Earthsea series’ (as well as by a story of his
father's, ‘Shuna's Journey’), seem an open acknowledgement that
Goro's allegiances are to the spirit rather than to the letter of Le
Guin's oeuvre. This is no literal adaptation, no overfaithful, overlong epic
like Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy, but instead a feature-length
cross-section of Earthsea. Arren's adventures with Sparrowhawk are drawn
largely (if not slavishly) from The Farthest Shore, but Arren's nightmarish
encounters with his own shadow are closer to Sparrowhawk's ex­periences in The
Wizard Of Earthsea, and Lord Cob's dungeons are said explicitly to be “like
the Tombs Of Atuan”.

Goro's Earthsea, you see, is a composite rather than a copy, and the
better for it. If you want the ‘real’ Earthsea, read the books – but if
you want a dragon's eye view of Le Guin's universe, from the luminous riches
of Enlad to the worldly decadence of Hort Town, from tempestuous sea to
windswept countryside, from cottage to castle, all rendered in the Ghibli house
style with an exquisite attention to detail, and presented in a digestible
package coming in at under two hours, then Tales From Earthsea is a dream come
true. And in the true spirit of Studio Ghibli's finest works, Tales From
Earthsea offers an allegorical critique of our own consumerist society (a world
out of balance indeed), and also arrives with its fair share of irrationalities
and loose ends, ensuring that multiple viewings will be rewarded.

Is Goro a match for his father? Well, no, not yet. The characters here
are decidedly flat (although the epicene Cob makes for a winningly louche
villain), and a little humour would have brought them some much-needed
warmth – even if the story's great earnestness is in itself a commendable
rarity. Still, these are early days, and Goro has many decades yet to take over
Hayao's mantle – or indeed to forge his own path. The talent is certainly
there, if not fully formed, and one suspects that with time Goro will, like
Arren, prove worthy to wield his father's sword and to continue his
father's bid for immortality. In the meantime, Tales From Earthsea is an
estimable enough start to what should be a long career in the magical art of
animation." 3.5 out of 5 stars